Isa Abdul-Quddus. Not exactly a household name or a guy any of us expected to make the roster. That’s him pictured lined up for his alma mater, the little unknown football program of Fordham University. I ran a poll (left hand side of the website) that asked you all which undrafted rookie free agent was most likely to make the team. 57.1% if you said Joseph Morgan, which was completely fair based on the terrific preseason he was having prior to his knee injury. Had he not gotten injured, he would have made the team. Abdul-Quddus wasn’t even the safety with the most votes, as 7.8% of you picked DeAndre McDaniel.
Abdul-Quddus came in tied for 5th in the voting with a measly 5.2%. Hard to believe, but in the end he was the lone undrafted free agent rookie to make it. He deserves it, too. Abdul-Quddus has been outstanding on special teams and he’ll make an immediate impact there for the Saints. The fact that the Saints kept him over both Pierson Prioleau and Chris Reis speaks volumes about his potential I think. He’s also earns the distinction of having by far the hardest name to pronounce on the team.
There a new poll on the left hand side of the site, by the way, where you can vote for which player you were most surprised didn’t make the team.
All this said, make no mistake, the Saints are very thin at safety and cannot afford an injury. I pray Darren Sharper…
is brought back in due time because the depth at safety is just not good. If anything happens to either Malcolm Jenkins or Roman Harper the Saints are in big trouble. We saw Jonathon Amaya a lot in preseason and while he’s expected to be one of the best special teamers on the team, his safety play was suspect as best. And while I think we all like Abdul-Quddus and hope he becomes a gem, i’m not exactly comfortable with him filling in for a starter on defense anytime soon. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee that the drop off in production from Malcolm Jenkins would be very significant. Both Jenkins and Harper have gotten a little banged up already this year and have missed preseason games, so we’re counting on guys maybe less than 100% already staying healthy. Darren Sharper, where you at?
Thanks for voting in the Saints Nation poll and please vote in the new poll on the left hand side of the site’s homepage.
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